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It’s no secret that the turbocharged four-cylinder Camaro RS isn’t intended to be a Performance (with a big “P”) car. Evidence? The best tire you can order for it is a Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric “high-performance, all-season” run-flat. That doesn’t mean you have to accept that. Heck, our company has built a publishing empire on the “make it better/faster” premise. Which is probably why an intrepid staffer noticed that the front tires (still run-flat) on our staggered-width summer-tired long-term 2016 Camaro SS (stay tuned for future updates) would fit on all four corners of the Camaro RS test car. We couldn’t just pop two off and leave our SS on the sidelines, so our friends at Tire Rack sent a set of four Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3 (emphasis on the “3”) summer tires. We tested the Camaro first with the all-seasons, then the summers. What happened?

Launching the Camaro RS isn’t easy, and the grippier summer tires make it trickier still. Get it right, though, and the summer tire will give it a slight edge out of the hole. Braking is a different story; the summer rubber brings the car to a halt 7 feet shorter from 60 mph. More important, the tires’ ability to slow the car doesn’t degrade like the all-seasons do when heat builds. Speaking of grip, the RS’ average lateral acceleration on the skidpad went from 0.91 g up to 0.96 g. Naturally, we had to see what effect the tires would have on lap times. In the track map below, you’ll see the Camaro RS with stock tires lapped the Streets course in 1:28.18, or 0.86 second behind the Mustang EcoBoost. Summer tires on the Camaro resulted in a 1.57-second lead. “It’s like the lovechild of a Z/28 and an MGB,” Randy Pobst said. “It might be better than a Miata.”